I also have the Midland handheld weather radio. It's the only NOAA I've owned, so it's hard to compare. It's a nice small size, although its antenna is about as high as the radio itself, so that sticks out quite a bit. The inability to operate it off AC power is a big downer. There's an AC jack, but it's only for charging.

It seems splashproof, and the battery compartment door has a thin rubber gasket. I'd dropped it numerous times on a carpeted floor with no ill effects.

It runs off 2AA and using NiMH batteries, I get about 4 days of use. During use, a green LED flashes intermittently so you know its on, which switches to red when the batteries run down. With alkalines, the red light will flash for a couple days, so I have plenty of time to change the batteries. But with NiMH, the batteries drain very quickly so I rarely see the red warning indicator. Since I use NiMH, I'm frequently waking up to find a dead radio, which is a bad thing in a radio you want to warn you against sudden, unexpected hazards. I have train tracks near me and although I don't know if hazardous materials are transported on that particular line, but I would like to think that I would be alerted to any chemical hazard if there was a derailment or accident.

The buttons are rather complicated, too. Only your county codes are retained when the batteries are drained, so a few times a week, I need to reset the time, the calendar, 12/24 hour indicator, turn off alarm 1, turn off alarm 2, and finally set to standby mode. I'm quick at it now, but it's a pain.

For a handheld sized radio that will mostly sit by your bedside, I think the Oregon Scientific with an AC adapter is much more practical.